The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1887-10-12
FROM YOUTH TO OLD AGE.
Horrible Fate of Young Girl Who Receives
Shock in an Electrical Establish
menf.

ment.
Cleveland, Ohio, special Near Lorraine
lives farmer named Max Harmon. His
Oldest daughter, Mary, young lady nine
teen years of age, has passed through one
of the strangest and most painful expert
ences which ever fell to the lot Of hu-
man being. A short time ago she was a
plump, rosy checked girl of robust health
and of sunny disposition Today
through the influence of a most peculiar
accident, she is, in all but years, a
shrunken, peevish old woman. The story
of this strange metamorphosis is as fol-
lows: A short time ago Mary and her
affianced came to Cleveland to make some
purchases and see the sights. One of the
young mans friends worked in one of the
electric establishments at the time. Eber-
lein, the girls lover, proposed to take his
future bride through the place and show
her the machinery. 1t appears that a
broken wire of her panler or hustle had
unperceived worked it's way through her
dress. While passing along the wire came
in contact with one of the powerful cleo
trio machines, and her hand resting on an
iron bar at the same time completed the
circuit, and she received a shock and fell
insensible to the floor. In few moments
she revived sufficiently to be removed
from the place, and was taken to her
home. The muscles of her face were
drawn and strained, but it was thought
that would shortly disappear. Medical
aid was summoned. For four days the
girl lay IN bed in q paralyzed condition.
Then she regained the use of her limbs,
but Immediately began to lose flesh rapid
". The hair or the left side of her head
turned grey and began falling out. After
four weeks Miss Harmon was able to be
about and attend to most of her house
hold duties as usual but in that
time she had been transformed from a
young and handsome girl into feeble
old woman. Her form, which had been
plump and rounded was thin and bent,
and the skin on her face and body was
dry and wrinkled. She had been a sweet
tempered, affectionate girl, but is now
peevish irratable and selfish. Her voice
is harsh and cracked, and no one to look
at her would imagine that she was less
than sixty years Of age. The Harmon
family are Mortified and we'll nigh heart
broken by the fate Of their once handsome
daughter, while young Eberlein is almost
frantic over the change in his afianced
bride. The physicians claim that the
electric current communicated directly
with the principal nerves of the spine and
the left side Of the head, and that the
shock almost destroyed their vitality
Strange to relate, the girls eye sight is
but slightly affected, but her hearing is
almost totally destroyed. Notwithstand-
ing her condition, the physicians claim
that her chances for living her allotted |
number Of years are not materially les
sened, although she could never recover
from her premature aged condition. In |
stances in which persons hair has turn
ID white in single night from fright,
grief, or some excessive nervous shock are
not rare, but this is supposed to be the
irst case in medical history in which
1erson has been know to step from the
bloom of vigorous youth into the decrepi
,ude of old age within q week.